CH 6

Oh, sorry! I bumped into you!

Translated by Dawn

Oh, sorry! I bumped into you!

Lunch break. I was in the staff room with Mizutani.

It seemed that Kano-chan had forgotten to hand out the handouts that were supposed to be distributed to the students during the end-of-day assembly yesterday. So we were sent out to hand them out now.

“Sorry, you two. I probably should be handing them out myself, but I’ve got a few things on my hands right now……”

Kano-chan said, shrugging her shoulders, looking really apologetic.

I felt it was hard for me to blame her if she made a face like that.

I had no intention of blaming her in the first place, so I consoled her appropriately by saying, “It’s okay,” and we left the staff room.

We split the stack of printouts in half and carried them.

As we walked side by side down the hallway, I could tell, even if I didn’t want to, that the other students’ gazes were on Mizutani.

Their reactions were generally like this.

First, they quickly looked at Mizutani and made a dumbfounded face.

After a while, when the charm broke, they would glance at me who was next to her.

Then they make a face like, “That bastard……walked next to Mizutani.”

No, no, no, that’s unreasonable.

I didn’t do anything.

If anything, I was being pushed around by Kano-chan.

If you could carry the prints for me, I’d gladly let you take my place.

However, Mizutani’s popularity was still amazing.

I thought about how often she was looked at when we got on the train, but it was nothing compared to that inside the school.

I peeked next to Mizutani, thinking, “Mizutani must be used to this,” and sure enough, she was walking nonchalantly with a face that was close to her usual expressionless face.

As I stole a glance at Mizutani’s face, I suddenly remembered last week.

It was on the train when she asked me for that outrageous favor.

Since then, Mizutani has never once mentioned the matter to me.

Even though her job as a class representative forced her to work together with me from time to time.

In her mind, it must have completely disappeared.

Yamamoto, on the other hand, had not yet given up on Mizutani.

I sometimes saw that guy making approaches to Mizutani.

Every time he did, Mizutani looked annoyed, or rather, as if she had icy waves coming off of her face, but it didn’t seem to work on Yamamoto.

However, it seemed that that guy was also busy with club activities or not always following Mizutani around.

Once, on my way home, I peeked at the ground and saw him practicing earnestly.

I was a little impressed, despite my ignorance.

It was a funny story, wasn’t it? It was natural for a baseball team to practice baseball.

Was this what the Yankee theory was all about?

While I was thinking about it, don! A sound came from the side.

A stack of papers in Mizutani’s hand fluttered through the air.

The prints were scattered around the area and a part of the corridor was dyed white.

Mizutani, the important one, was on her butt next to the scattered prints.

She was looking up at an angle with a stunned look on her face.

I followed her gaze.

There was a brown-haired gal with heavy makeup and two of her cronies behind her.

Satomi…come to think of it, had her eye on Mizutani the other day.

“Oh, sorry! I bumped into you!”

Satomi said in a voice that did not sound sincere at all.

“Be careful, Ayaka.”

“That’s right, Mizutani-san looks so miserable.”

Two of the cronies mouthed something sympathetic to Mizutani.

But their eyes were clearly smiling.

“I’d love to help you pick it up, but I’m kind of in a hurry right now.　I’m really sorry, Mizutani-san.”

Satomi said the last thing and walked briskly across the hallway.

The two cronies followed her, saying, “We’re in a hurry, too!”

…Well, I’m dumbfounded.

Why was I just standing there watching the scene in a daze?

I should have said something to Satomi.

But those girls were gone.

I had to help Mizutani first.

“You okay, Mizutani?”

Ignoring the noisy crowd, Mizutani nodded her head.

She began to gather up the scattered prints at a leisurely pace.

Her back was not like the girl I had seen in the courtyard the other day, walking briskly down the hallway.

“I’ll help.”

I called out to her and helped her pick up the prints, too.

No response from Mizutani, but it didn’t matter now.

We both silently collected the prints and finished picking them all up.

“Can you hold them?”

“Un. Thanks.”

Mizutani stood up, holding a bundle of prints.

It appeared that she was uninjured.

If Mizutani had hurt herself somewhere with this……no, I didn’t want to think about it too much.

Mizutani lightly brushed off the spot on her skirt where she had fallen on her butt with her hand.

Then she resumed her steps. I walked next to her.

But unlike a moment ago, the silence felt awkward now.

I guess it was because I had just seen that scene.

Unable to resist, I opened my mouth.

“Hey, earlier, Satomi did that……that was probably on purpose.”

“…I wonder.”

“I mean, didn’t she mess with Mizutani the other day? What makes her do that….”

“….Well.”

Mizutani turned away from me.

What’s with the pause?

It didn’t show in her expression, but it did seem a little suspicious.

Maybe she knew what made her do that?

…No, forget it.

Mizutani didn’t want to tell me, so I kept quiet.

If that was what she wanted, I shouldn’t have gone any deeper into her life.

Besides, that was a little rude of me to ask.

“I’m sorry, Mizutani. I was a little rude just now, wasn’t I?”

“Aizawa doesn’t have to apologize. But…”

“But?”

When I urged her to continue, Mizutani stared at me with an upward glance.

I silently looked back into her eyes and she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, it’s nothing. More importantly, we have to hand out the printouts. Come on, Aizawa.”

“…Ah, yes.”

It was at that moment that I started to follow Mizutani’s back, who was ahead of me.

Ogura’s words from the other day flashed back into my mind.

“If Mizutani seems to be in trouble, please help her out.”

Hmmm……right now, helping her once in a while it’s fine, right?